Luther’s apology for christianity

10.1163/ej.9789004160439.i-260.35

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Chapter Summary

Shortly after the Verlegung des Alcoran left Hans Lufft's press in Wittenberg, Martin Luther became embroiled in a controversy over the publication of the Qurʾān taking place in Basel. Having recently read the Qurʾān, Luther was convinced, and thus informed his readers, that not only did Islam put forward different beliefs about God, but it also proposed a religion that was fundamentally anti-thetical to Christianity. The text for the sermon was the Gospel narrative of Jesus being awakened by his disciples during a storm on the Sea of Galilee where-upon Jesus calmed the winds and waves. Luther's charge that Islam was an invention of Muḥammad clearly rested upon a host of assumptions quite unacceptable from a Muslim perspective. Luther's primary purpose in responding to the theology of the Qurʾān was to ensure that the gospel would be preserved as the church now found itself confronted by Islam.